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Pol Espargaró, who started fifteenth on the grid at Losail, claimed three points in his second race as a Repsol Honda Team rider. After getting off the line well and managing to move up to tenth place, he made a mistake in the second half of the race that caused him to drop down to thirteenth before the chequered flag.
Teammate Stefan Bradl was also able to score points at back-to-back rounds this season. The German placed fourteenth, earning two points and crossing the line just over a second outside the Top 10.
Following the Doha Grand Prix, Espargaró occupies tenth in the overall standings with 11 points. Bradl is thirteenth with 7 points. The third round of the season will get underway on April 16th in Portimao, with the first Free Practice for the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Rider statements
“This race we once again showed that our potentially is incredibly high, our pace was really strong especially during the middle and the end of the race, but I made two big mistakes which ruined our chances. We could have been fighting for a lot more, especially without the second error. We have again been able to finish close to the winner despite this, but I am left wondering what could have been. These two races have both shown that our potential on the Honda is very, very high but we still need to work on a couple of things including Qualifying. There’s more to come, we will try again in Portimão.”
“The first thing I did when I came back to the garage was to apologise for the start, it was my mistake. It’s a problem I have never had in my career before and it’s very unfortunate because here we lost probably two seconds. After this big mistake our pace was very good, and I was able to catch the group and ride aggressively. I am quite angry because I was riding well and if it weren’t for the start, we could have been even closer and fighting for higher positions. In the end it is what it is. Now MotoGP returns to Europe and I am sure we will see Honda stronger there again.”